


Into Mist

by Setsuna24



Category: Finder no Hyouteki | Finder Series
Genre: Angst, Emotional neglect, Hurt/Comfort, Loneliness, M/M, Runaway
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:15:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4502169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setsuna24/pseuds/Setsuna24
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The bed had become a desert to him, a vacant wasteland more akin to tundra in its empty coldness than to a true desert filled with heat, he had become a ghost traveling its planes alone searching for something that he himself had forgotten what it was. There was nothing he could do but continue to wait and dwell in the vast emptiness that was the bed without Asami.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into Mist

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ashida](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashida/gifts).



> : Hello there!  
> Originally I was not going to post this story until I had written all three chapters of it. But then I was reminded that August 4 was Asami’s B-day and I had nothing to post for it. And then I remembered that Ashida’s birthday was also coming up so this will serve as a dual B-day post. So happy birthday Ash and happy birthday Asami!
> 
> Betaed by fifteenfeb.
> 
> I own nothing.

**Into Mist**

It started like any other day.

He quit his job at the newspaper four years ago and stopped freelancing as a criminal photographer. Instead, he had gotten himself a nice, steady and safe job as a fashion photographer. He hated working with self-entitled models who demanded more than they were owed. But he was getting too close to Asami’s business and by unspoken agreement between them, that was a big no-no.

It wasn’t that he wanted to spy on Asami and go digging into his less than savory deals, it really wasn’t like that at all, it was actually the fact that every shady deal in Tokyo eventually led to the golden-eyed man and Akihito did not want to pry into his business and ruin what they had. Regardless of the fact that he still didn’t know what it was they had.

Besides, Asami had been very forward with his demands that he changed careers and found something that would be less likely to kill him.

The day he made that decision had started like any other day. With waking up early to make coffee and breakfast, a short conversation and mild teasing, with suits and briefcases, sharp golden eyes and a devious smirk. With the all-encompassing presence that was Asami and his subsequent departure to Sion before Akihito too, left the penthouse for his own responsibilities of the day.

The days passed and the way they started their days slowly shifted until eventually, by the time he sat down and thought about it, everything had already changed.

Today too, started like any other day except, their days had changed so long ago it was quite obviously different from what it used to be. He still woke up early to make coffee and breakfast, but there was no longer short conversations and mild teasing, there were not suits or briefcases, no sharp golden eyes, and for a long time, no deviously heat-inducing smirk.

Asami barely came home anymore and Akihito didn’t know why, but he guessed it had started about nine or ten months after he quit chasing bad guys with a camera and running like being possessed through dark dingy alleys. It started with one night of long hours at Sion which ran into a long day of business meeting and before either of them knew it, Asami had not come home for three days. From then on, it became more frequent until four years later, he found Asami only coming home once a week and most weeks, not at all.

He never knew when the man would show up.Tired of asking and even more tired of waiting, Akihito had begun to just take a shower and slip into bed after a day of work. Most of the time when Asami did make it home, he would not even realize the man had slept with him on the same bed until he woke up to find the empty side of the bed ruffled and slept on. He wondered sometimes if Asami held him while he slept, if the man murmured words into his ear and shared his warmth with him. It had been a long time since he felt like Asami’s lover in more than just words and Akihito questioned why he still stuck around.Why didn’t Asami just tell him to go?

Still, he held on, for four lonely years, he waited for something to happen. Sometimes he worked late and left a note on the table informing Asami of his upcoming late arrival. He would come home and find the note on the same spot he had left it. A testament of Asami not showing up that night either. Eventually he stopped leaving notes altogether. No one followed him anymore. Ever since Asami had realized Akihito was not up to jumping into danger the first chance he could and that he was indeed playing it safe, his protective detail had boiled down to one chauffer who drove him to and from work and to any errands during the day.

The bed had become a desert to him, a vacant wasteland more akin to tundra in its empty coldness than to a true desert filled with heat, he had become a ghost traveling its planes alone searching for something that he himself had forgotten what it was. There was nothing he could do but continue to wait and dwell in the vast emptiness that was the bed without Asami.

He had sat down to think about his life the previous night, sitting on the balcony with a bottle of expensive Chardonnay Sauvignon Blanc he had found that morning in one of the covers, and he came to the conclusion that he had lost his spark. At some point after he gave up his life of danger and adrenaline, of chasing a story and jumping off rooftops, he had lost the spark and fire that made him “Takaba Akihito”. He realized too, that that might indeed had been about the same time Asami started to pull away. He had given up everything because and for Asami and ended up with nothing, not even a body to warm his bed. He should have never changed his life to accommodate that man’s desires. In retrospect, he should have known better. With Asami, it had always been about the chase and once that factor was out of the equation, he should have known that the man would lose interest. How bitter these revelations were… and the taste of expensive Chardonnay could not mask it at all. It seemed to him that with the lack of need to keep an eye on him, Asami had lost interest in being with him, the question remained, why would the man not just tell him to go?

That night, he finished his bottle and went to bed as usual, Asami had not come home. In the morning he had woken up and stretched his arm to the other side of the bed to find it empty, cold, and unperturbed… a morning like any other. He had not seen Asami in over a month and in all honesty, he was beyond the point of missing him and well over the edge into acceptance, and still some times, he would catch himself stretching his arm onto the other side of the bed just in hopes not to find it empty.

Akihito’s day began like any other day. With an empty bed, coffee and breakfast for one, the oppressing silence of the cold and empty condo, and leaving at eight for his work at the agency.

The day had started like any other day but for the fact that his thoughts from the previous night were still haunting him, the questions were still plaguing his mind, and because today was the day that Akihito had simply given up.

Why did he have to wait for Asami to remember he was still around and tell him to leave? He could just as well leave on his own volition and never look back, saving himself the hurt and pain of being abandoned for certain despite the fact that he had already been abandoned a long time ago.

All day, he kept catching glances of an unknown blond man with dull hazel eyes, he was there, in every mirror Akihito passed and in every reflective surface. He realized then that it was him he was seeing, it was him he kept catching glances of, and he had no idea who this new him was or what had become of the person he once was. The complacency of the safe and easy life of a fashion photographer had turned him dull… boring. He could not help but think ‘no wonder he doesn’t want any part of this.’

So that day, which begun like any other day, ended with him being dropped off at the condo just like he always was. Except this day, he packed his most precious things into a duffel bag and a backpack, leaving behind all kinds of expensive things Asami had gifted him and he had gotten himself over the years. He only took the clothes he liked the most and felt most comfortable in, his father’s camera which was his favorite, pictures with his friends and family and his most precious mementos of his times with the man he had grown to love. No one followed him anymore, four years of silence made them lax in their keeping of him and he made it to an ATM in relative peace and without interruptions. He emptied his personal bank account, the one which contained money he had earned on his own, and didn’t touch the one Asami had long ago set up for him to use.

He dyed his hair in a cheap motel room, put on contacts that made his eyes into the typical ‘Japanese black’ and visited one of his previous informants who gave him the contact information of someone who could forge a passport for him.

Two days later, Akiyama Hibiki left Japan.

The name he had chosen made him chuckle every time; it was a reminder of his trials and tribulations, of who he was. Akiyama; because he would always be Aki no matter what, the mess of his current life had begun because Yamazaki-san had betrayed and used him leading him to be under Asami’s perverted clutches for three days. And Hibiki, because he was currently an echo of the person he used to be.

Takaba Akihito had dissolved into mist and disappeared into the ether.

It took Asami one month to figure it out, but by then, it was already too late.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is not too long but to make it longer would just mess with the flow of the story so I just leave here. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> Setsuna


End file.
